Making Makeup

My Briana has become obsessed with watching Mommy get ready in the morning. The whole 5 minutes of it. She scrutinizes my face washing, deodorizing, and quick, sloppy make-up application like she's a cosmetology student and her future career depends on perfecting her craft.  Of course she also wants to join in and every now and then I let her use a chapstick to make her lips "all shiny like Mommy's".  As a kid I could wear some makeup, but I was never allowed to wear “rouge” (ie. blush) which my Dad for some reason believed to be a catalyst to becoming a “lady of the night”, so I have a probably unhealthy fear of letting my kids wear make-up too early, but I try to let go of that this morning and get ready for some fun with chemistry.

Time To Talk-

But first, I stress to the kids that before you can put things on your face, it’s important to know how to take care of your face.  You have to wash it to keep it clean.  I also share my mother’s skin care secrets- the key to keeping your skin looking young is to keep it clean and always use MOISTURIZER.  “No matter what, wash your face every morning and every night before bed, and use moisturizer no matter what the weather is like,” I tell the kids, “And use the kind with sunblock in it on your face every day.  Also, remember that the first tell of your age is actually your neck, so you have to take care of your neck like you take care of your face not like you take care of your body.  Use your face soap and moisturizer on your face and neck.  That’s important.”  Incidentally, this is the kids’s great-grandmother.  Look at her skin!  You know Gigi, as the kids call her, looks good to be well into her 80s sans plastic surgery!    

I continue, “There’s everyday care and special-day care.  Special-day care is when you get extra clean and pampered.  You can do it at home or at the spa like Mommy goes to.  That’s where you can get massages, and facials, and get your nails done.  We’ll go when you’re both 3 years old.”  You have to be 3 to go to the kid spa where I live.  Yes, I have already checked.

Time To Clean-

We all wash our face with Cetaphil.  Every time I have tried something fun or new on my face, I’ve always returned to Cetaphil.  I think the no water Sensitive Skin Cleanser is the best, but also the most drying, so I use it at night and use the Facial Cleanser in the day.  Most people moisturize more at night, but at least for me I think that lying on a pillow with a thick moisturizer is bound to introduce more dirt into your pores as they soak in the moisturizer.  I use the nighttime to let my skin recuperate from the things I do to it all day.  I show the kids how to apply and remove the Cetaphil and then we do the same with the Garnier face moisturizer with spf that I use.  Not an everyday regimen for the kids, they don’t really need moisturizers just yet, so I reiterate that this is a special-day skin treatment for them.

After face washing I slice cucumbers for our eyes.  I explain that the cold cucumbers have what’s called anti-inflammatory properties, which means that they will keep your eyes from staying red and puffy.  “My eyes are not red and puffy, they’re brown and white Mommy.”  “When you cry the white parts can get red, and when you get really tired the bottom parts can get puffy.  That’s what we use the cucumber for.  To make them all perfect again.”  Close enough.  We put the cold cucumbers on our eyes and the kids take it more seriously than I thought they would.  Bree wants to make sure her eyes don’t get puffy in case she cries.  Abby alternates between putting her cucumbers on her eyes and taking a bite of it.  It’s important to note that we used seedless cucumbers and cut the slices a little bit thicker than you might for yourself.  You don’t want to worry about seeds in the eyes of the kids and the seedless ones tend to be smaller in diameter and they hold together a little bit better when you cut them thicker. 

“Now that our faces are taken care of, and that’s the key thing, we can add a little decoration.  Today it’s just for fun.  You have to take care of your skin until you are a big kid before you can decorate it every day like Mommy.”  I explain to ward off the rouge-wearing ladies of the night in training.  Oh man!  When to let the kids wear makeup?!  High school for sure.  Maybe lip gloss after they turn 13.  I don’t know and can’t think of such things now.  I have a while to worry about that.  (Though as an aside I’d love to hear the thoughts of my readers on that topic!)

Time To Introduce the Word ‘Chemistry’-

For those of you who didn’t know, I am a chemical engineer.  Well, was, I am a housewife now, but that news wouldn’t really go with the chemistry mini-lesson.  Anyway, as a hobby I make my own soaps and lotions and once in a while make-up.  One of these days I still think I’ll create my own line of nature-based skincare.  So I ask the kids, “Did you know that Mommy made some of her lipsticks?”  “This is why it’s important to understand chemistry.  Chemistry is basically mixing things to make new things.”  For the record, the following way that I made lipstick with the kids is not the way I make lipstick for myself (when I do, which I never have time for anymore), but this way is safer both to make with kids and to eat a tiny bit of in case that happens and I thought that it would demonstrate how chemistry works – taking something and mixing it to make something new.

Time For A Fun Chemistry Experiment-

We’re going to make a lipstick and a nail polish to complete our spa day. 

Bree doesn’t believe that I can turn a crayon into a lipstick.  “They’re just different things Mommy.  You can’t just make them something you want.”  You’ll see the magic of chemistry in a minute, little one!

To make the lipstick you only need 4 ingredients – a wax for shape (we will use crayons), an emollient or moisturizer (shea butter), additives like baby oil for gloss (and softness), and a pigment or color (also in the crayons).  I already had the ingredients assembled. 

Step 1: Pick our color and crush up the crayons

We look at all of the crayons in the crayon box.  I pick a nice pink one.  Briana picks out a blue one and Abby picks a yellow one because that looks the tastiest.  Ah!  Abby!  I fish the crayon out of Abby’s mouth and chalk it up to being closer to crumbled that way.  We take the paper off of our crayons and I slice each crayon in half lengthwise (just to make the crushing easier for the kids without the crayons rolling around).  Then I put each of our crayons in between 2 sheets of wax paper and hand Briana and Abigail measuring cups.  We all use the sides of the measuring cups to smash up our crayons.  Then we put the smashed pieces of each color in separate disposable, heat safe, kid cups.  We have millions of these in the house, but any heat safe cup/bowl/whatever will work.

Bree making sure every square inch is "smooshed"

Step 2: Measure and add 1 tsp of baby oil

A little bit of the baby oil goes a long way.  If you add a little bit more, you’ll have a very runny lipstick, so we err on the side of adding a little less than a teaspoon.  We measure and dump it on top.  Jojoba oil, castor oil, lots of mineral oils will work well.  I stick with baby oil because it’s kid safe and already in my house.

Step 3: Add 2 tsp of shea butter

We scoop out the shea butter and let it plop into our cups.  If you want a more firm lipstick you can use cocoa butter.  I choose shea butter because the finished product will be smoother – easier for the kids to apply and easier to remove immediately thereafter for me.  If you want to, you can add a tiny bit of zinc oxide too, your lipstick will turn out more opaque and less lip-gloss like, but no zinc oxide for us right now.  We rub the shea butter that gets on our hands into our cuticles.

Step 4: Heat it up and pour it into the lipstick container

This is Mommy’s step.  Luckily the kids are already used to me cooking…such as it is…so they don’t object to me doing the hot parts of the experiment.  Heat a bowl of water to boiling.  I microwave the water for about 2 minutes and 30 seconds.  Then I put the cup with the mixture of crayon, baby oil, and shea butter into the bowl of boiling water.  I stir it for about 2 minutes (stop when everything is melted completely) while the kids watch everything melt from afar.  While I stir I tell them that heat is one of the things that chemists and chemical engineers use a lot to turn something into something new.  Just like when we cook, we take raw food and turn it into cooked food by using heat.  Then I pour it into our lipstick tubes and jars to cool.  I do both just so the kids can see 2 different kinds of lipsticks.  Don’t put the top on while it’s cooling or you’ll add a lot of moisture from the steam and it won’t set up right.  Also, don’t stir or shake it while it’s cooling or it won’t look smooth when it’s finished, though you can quickly tap it right after you pour to get air bubbles out.  I have no chance to do any of those aesthetic enhancements, I just quickly dump the hot, fun looking liquids to get them out of the kids' reach.  After we do each color, I reheat the water, just to make the melting go faster because the kids are quite impatient – and it only takes 2 minutes!  After about 10 minutes of cooling it will be the consistency of a runny lipgloss.  After about 30 minutes it’s ready to go.  Here are some pics of us with lovely lipsticks on.  We applied them after we painted our nails and let the nails dry.  One quick warning about the lipstick – it tastes awful (unsurprisingly like a crayon) and if you make it too runny it will get in your mouth.  I like for it to taste awful in this case because I don’t want the kids to try to eat it on purpose.  On the plus side, when I wiped it off, my lips were super smooth…and I wiped it off of Abby 2 seconds after letting her try it on.  I let Bree wear hers for fun.  I of course explained that the lipstick was just for fun and to show you that with chemistry you can mix something to make something new.  But lipsticks are for mommies and bigger kids that do a good job of keeping their faces clean, moisturized, and taken care of for lots of years.

Abby wondering why I tried to smear a weird stick of yellow stuff on her mouth.

Bree did a pretty good job applying her lipstick

Me sporting Bree's blue.  My own pink really doesn't look any different than a store bought one.

While the lipstick was cooling, we make our own nail polish, which I let Bree and I keep on.  Sorry Abby, you don’t get to try on the nail polish – 18mo is way too young.  Of course I’m not pulling out any caustic ingredients for my babies to play in, so we don’t make it from scratch.  Nail polish is generally made from 1) a nitrocellulose, which contains tiny cotton fibers that basically make a film on your nails, 2) resins and plasticizers so it’s more wearable and you can wash your hands and go about your day with the polish on, 3) a solvent to hold it together (think of how mustard makes your vinaigrette stay together longer instead of separating into oil and vinegar), and 4) color. 

I get a premade base of clear, fast drying (the kids won’t wait) nail polish and I some cheap eyeshadow pack with lots of different colors in it that I bought for this occasion.  The kids pick out their colors of choice, pink for Bree and gold for Abby.  I have Bree crush them both together with her measuring cup because Abby is happily snacking on cucumbers now.  I make a quick funnel by snipping the corner off of an envelope and I let Briana pour the crushed eye shadow into the clear base and seal the lid.  Then she shakes it up, and, voila, we’re ready to paint.  The kids’ color is so pretty I let Briana paint my nails too.  I think I’m actually going to save the nail polish.

Our finished products

Afterwards, we make homemade smoothies for snacks and sport our beautiful creations at the dry cleaner.  Later, after getting some good exercise running around in the backyard, we lunch on cucumber and cream cheese sandwiches and a salad.  Overall, it’s a great little homemade spa day.  See how much fun chemistry can be!

<3 Pedigreed Housewife